Geoffrey Lean is Britain's longest-serving environmental correspondent, having pioneered reporting on the subject almost 40 years ago.

Will lack of fibre freeze Britain out of the next industrial revolution?

One in seven Britons cannot get broadband at the minimum speed needed for reasonable use of the internet, and – though the government is taking some action to improve things – the country is increasingly lagging behind competitors and will continue to be strewn with digital deserts. But the people in one such area have taken the future into their own hands and are installing one of the fastest services in the country through community action. In this weekend's column in the Daily Telegraph, I tell the story.